Toroidal vs EI power amps any difference.

Toroidal transformers look more techy. They are more expensive to wind. 
 

That’s it. No technical superiority.

Toroidal transformers are quieter to a point, but the larger they get the more susceptible they are to DC offset. I was told it starts to be more common  in toroidal’s over 300va. They can start humming or buzzing because of anything from a space heater to LED lights, especially when they are variable lights.

@jaytor - exactly.  As a manufacturer we use toroidal as we feel they have less noise.  When I met the Luxman representative about 5 years ago, he told me that Luxman switched to EI as they felt in their tests they performed better.  We have not done a comparison but in our experience we use toroidal in our tube components.

Happy Listening.

My current solid state DAC utilizes a toroidal transformer (And it sounds wonderful). I’m currently having a new tube DAC built for me that will have 3 separate toroidal transformers (Also 2 chokes) so a fair amount of iron. Both my tube preamplifier and tube mono blocks utilize “double C-core” transformers and they sound wonderful.

I suspect that like virtually all things concerning audio the major influencing factors are quality of construction and execution. I believe that in the right hands, all of the various types of transformers can contribute to excellent sound quality performance. It is however interesting to explore why different builders chose to use a particular type of transformer.

Charles

Not exactly on topic, but is there a downside to OTL’s , Futterman, D. Berning?